Linux Inventor Says He Doesn’t Believe in Crypto

AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to Technology@lemmy.world – 1577 points –
Linux Inventor Says He Doesn’t Believe in Crypto
u.today
  • Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
  • Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
  • Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.
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crypto is too ecologically expensive and wasteful

Only some (proof of work) crypto is ecologically expensive and wasteful.

Oh there's other's? Guess I haven't read enough.

But how to they manage to be decentralised?

Proof of stake is one method I've seen, but I'm sure there are others.

Interesting, but, giving it a quick scan, some of them look like based on personal trust and others feel kinda chicken/egg-ish.
And I may need to read it properly first, but "holdings" feels like you probably need to buy some of it first, presumably using some other currency.

Yes, that's the usual criticism. To be able to stake, you need to have currency, promoting a rich get richer kind of scheme.

As long as they use energy they are wasteful, considering they don't provide anything constructive for that wasted energy which could have been used for better things.

By this argument any website is wasteful. There's always a "better thing".

Banks also use energy, so banks are wasteful too